the world. >> class of 2013. >> eureka. it's an amazing place, wasn't it? >> unbelievable. >> and, man, these picture right here by leslie woodhead. living history. >> that is amazing. what are we going to do with louis? >> hug him. love him up. i am reminded if a river runs through it and the line you must completely love, even if we don't completely understand. i think that says it all about louis. do you have a birthday cake to throw in his face? >> all right, we're over. we're over. got to go. it's way too early. now it's time for chuck todd. bye-bye. joe, you always owe me 30 seconds. did irs officials target tea party groups for political reasons? why is a conservative clamor

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being met by a dismal degree of outrage from democrats? president faces the press in two hours. an administration already undersiege with the benghazi backlash. house republican hearing stirs up. will sworn testimony from independent investigators bring an end to the inquiry or open up more? plus, with just about six weeks until massachusetts elects a new u.s. senator is gabriel gomg gogomez within striking distance? they released internal numbers that may get the attention. >> good morning from the seattle prep mock trial team. here at nationals indianapolis. it's monday, may 13th, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." >> now here's chuck todd! >> mock trial. congratulations to the seattle prep team for coming in sixth at the national mock trial

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championships and thanks to john ba bailey for sending in that video. my first reads of the morning. the administration is under fire, but is it all just partisan politics or will a pair of controversies leave lasting damage? house republicans plan to ask the two co-chairs of the independent report on the benghazi attacks. ambassador tom pickering for sworn testimony about their investigation. "meet the press" sunday pickering argued he's said all along that he will testify before the committee. >> ambassador pickering, his people and he refused to come before our committee. >> that is not true. i said the day before the hearings i was willing to appear. to come to the very hearings that he excluded me from. the white house told -- >> please don't tell me i excluded you. >> on sunday, senator john mccain repeated his call for a special committee to investigate, saying former secretary of state hillary clinton should testify before congress, again.

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>> i'd call it a cover up. i would call it a cover up in the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious. it was obvious. >> now, there are two parts to the benghazi allegations. one the white house engineered a coverp and altered the talking points to protect themselves politically. the evidence to support that allegation seems to be fading as we learn more about the state department's role in changing the talking points and pushing forward. the second allegation is the one that has a bit more legs. they were changed after a bureaucratic knife fight in which the state department and cia battled over what will be made public. why was there a battle? as we now know at least 12 separate drafts of the talking points initially requested by the house intelligence committee. the cia first draft included language saying islamic extremists with ties to ala cada participated in the attack and referred to cia warnings, describing at least five other

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attacks in foreign interest in benghazi by unidentified surveillance. but a career diplomat that worked for republican and democratic administrations objected. "why are we encouraging members of congress to start making assertions to the media that we ourselves are not making because we don't want to prejudice the investigation. what was the state department's motivation? the state trying to spare political criticism after the attack. did it feel the cia was too heavy handed for not protecting benghazi when most of the personnel there were attacked to the cia and not state. were state and the white house trying to keep the fact that there was a cia outpost in benghazi hidden as long as possible. the only way to find the answers to these questions is to ask the person in charge at the time, hillary clinton. pickering defended the review board's decision not to question during his review. >> we had a discussion with secretary clinton. we had discussion with her two

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immediate subordinates. we interviewed other people. at the moment, i don't see any need to do more interviews or to return interviews, even if that were possible. >> and other democrats chimed in saying republicans are trying to damage clinton's reputation ahead of 2016. >> unfortunately, this has been caught up in the 2016 presidential campaign. this effort to go after hillary clinton. it is unsubstantiated. >> when hillary clinton's name is mentioned 32 times in a hearing that a point in the hearing is to discredit the secretary of state who has very high popularity and may be a candidate for president. >> don't miss feinstein comments. she criticized the talking points itself and it did not spare the administration. >> i think the talking points were wrong. i think the talking points should not be written by the

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intelligence community. >> if there's something you would have liked to have seen, the president or the secretary of state do differently after this broke, it would have been what? >> oh, to move faster. to say, yes, this was, in fact, a terrorist act. i mean, it was so evident and -- >> why did they drag their heels? if you believe that, why did they drag their heels? >> because they, i think this is a cautious administration. you see it in other respects. >> i had the same question for somebody in the administration on friday about what would you have done differently. and they said, nothing would have been done differently other than delaying further any public talking points, saying the rush to give the media an explanation made it so that the decision to be overly cautious with everybody's objections and everybody's characterization of what happened and that's how you end up potentially with talking points as watered down as they were. one person who did defend the

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administration's handling of the attacks is former defense secretary robert gates who said over the weekend he would have made the same decisions and dismissed the idea that low-flying fighter jets or special forces group could have prevented any more u.s. casualties. >> it's sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces. the one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm's way and there just wasn't time to do that. >> unlike benghazi, which has been litigated and relitigated at congressional hearings susan rice's behind the scenes and the revelation that the irs targeted groups with conservative sounding names for tax exempt status is new and it could do lasting damage to the administration and democrats. this week, the treasury inspector general for tax administration will release a report that shows that as early as march 2010 the cincinnati field office, which was put in charge of evaluating

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applications for tax exempt status began searching for groups with politically identifiable names. according to "washington post" of the 298 groups selected for special scrutiny, 72 had the words tea party in their title. 13 had patriot and in march 2012, irs commissioner douglas shulman, a bush appointee, told congress that the agency was not targeting conservative groups. >> there's absolutely no targeting. this is the kind of back and forth that happens when people apply for 501 c4 status. >> the inspector general turned out that irs leadership did know some specialists were searching applications especially for tea party style names and groups for a year before shulman testified to congress. on sunday, republicans, naturally, were outraged. >> it is absolutely chilling that the irs was singling out conservative groups for extra

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review. and i think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out. >> i don't care if you're a conservative, a liberal this should send a chill up your spine. >> the administration's day one handling of the story has been poor. the democratic party's handling of it has been borderline abysmal and the irs has been abysmal the white house has pushed the idea that it was led by rogue agents. an expressed regret. >> the irs, as you know, an independent enforcement agency with only two political appointees. we certainly find the actions taken has reported to be inappropriate and we would fully expect the investigation to be thorough. >> the rogue agents is difficult

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to make given this was the fie office assigned to deal with this project, which is an issue in the lack of universal outrage fuels the perception that this was politically motivated on some levels. abuse of government you can have these days at a time when public confidence in government is already very low. lows learner didn't increase that confidence. when asked how many groups have been targeted. >> a quarter of the 300 -- we're talking 75 or so? >> that's correct. is that a quarter? that's correct. thank you, i'm not good at math. >> the irs news is a political gift to a republican party, strained right now and potentially divided on immigration and guns that can now unite around two things they can agree to dislike, the obama administration and the nrnal revenue service. the news is a gift it

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republicans like mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham and any incumbent in washington who will now get to domgemagogue the hec out of the story. don't be surprised if we hear from the president on this story for the first time at his 11:15 joint press conference, british prime minister david cameron. finally, this could be an important weekend in presidential 2016 politics. kentucky senator rand paul made his iowa debut over the weekend in cedar rapids. is he the iowa frontrunner already? at the annual spring fund-raising event. he got the biggest applause line of the night by taking on hillary clinton over her handling of benghazi. >> first question for hillary clinton. where in the hell were the marines? they're asking for security. they're bleeding for security and they got nothing. it was inexcusable.

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it was a dereliction of duty and preclude her from holding our office. >> he has not made up his mind to run for office but the event had the unmistakable feel of a campaign appearance. >> the process of selecting the next leader of the free world begins in iowa and it's already begun. >> rand paul is determined not to be his father, who rarely courted and usually alienated evangelical voters. he met friday with a group of pastors and religious conservatives while in iowa and rand paul reasserted his support for marriage during a press conference before a speech. paul also gave a nod of conservative criticism saying he intend to introduce a border security amendment on the senate floor. >> i'm also i think we were hoodwinked in '86 and promised security and it never came. if i can get something like that

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or they come towards me and they will make border security, there's a chance i will vote for the bill. am i worried about it? i am worried i might offend some people and i'm worried whether it will work or not. >> overall his speech was part big government critique and rattled off jokes about pork bearable projects and the fed. >> i was in new york the other day and we're driving down the road and we come up to the federal reserve. the police -- this is an easy crowd. >> a call to action for republicans by way of the proclaimers and the song he was greeted with on stage. >> we're an increasingly diverse nation and i think we do need to reach out to other people that don't look like us. don't wear the same clothes. that aren't exactly who we are. we need to reach out. we're going to have to do something. i will walk 500 miles.

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and i will walk 500 more just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles to fall down at your door. >> geez. some song was in his ipod there. anyway, remember, rand paul allies have taken over the iowa republican party these days. up next, lessons learned. the benghazi change how the u.s. gets involved in other parts of the world, like syria. new developments in the case against ariel castro as his brothers speak out for the first time. first, the look ahead. today's politics planner. president, by the way, goes to fund-raisers in new york city after a meeting with the special relationship with david cameron. but, as the song will let you know, there's a philadelphia stop today for the administration. it involves vice president biden. we'll see if he does a little rocky while in philly. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc.

>> syria, libya, both artificial creations of colonel powers. putting together historiced a ver serial groups, and for us to think we can determine the outcome of that was a mistake. i thought it was a mistake in libya and i think it is a mistake in syria. we overestimate our ability to determine outcomes. >> that was former defense secretary robert gates on how the lessons of libya can be applied to syria despite the politics of benghazi.

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gates' take away still holds true. once u.s. gets involved with the conflict overseas no way to predict how it will end or who is in charge? president obama and prime minister david cameron when they meet at the white house this morning. david sangar, the chief correspondent for "new york times." you know, setting aside the politics of the benghazi, what's going on right now between the republicans and the obama administration, the issue that benghazi wasn't safe is a fallout over after the involvement of all the allies, western allies, if you will, to topple gadhafi in libya something that is unstable, that has got to have an impact on the syria decisions, does it not? >> that's right. it is very possible, chuck, that libya could look like something of a model of good transitions compared to syria. a lot of reasons to believe that syria could break up in different geographic parts. also a lot of reason to believe that because there are so many

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different rebel groups, some of whom are islamic extremists, you don't know who will end up running the country. what i thought was fascinating about secretary gates' answer was that in libya he made the argument that the united states had no vital national interest there. i think that was probably the right argument. in the end, the president went in on humanitarian grounds. in syria, i think you can argue that the united states does have significant interests, given the borders including with israel and so forth. secretary didn't address that. but he did make the point that once you're in, you never know how -- >> humanitarian argument is stronger but what happened in libya is having an impact on this decisionmaking which is why the white house is being much slower on this and not allowing. you know, the british and the french basically drove us into this and you guys want to be in the public face of it, go ahead, we got your back.

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this one, they're pulling cameron and the french. >> they're pulling them back, but you have to realize that syria is, in a way, a civil war under way on top of which you have the potential very nasty proxy war. it is highly complex. i think the complexity david just laid out is there. you have 3 million kurds in iraq so there are national security interests on the borders, on the border states involved. and on the humanitarian side, what's complex there is when president obama made the decision to go into benghazi. remember, he said we needed to have support from the region, which they got through the arab league and then able to get through the united nations. we need to have a tipping point effect and need to be able to make a hit that will make a difference on the outcome and on the ground. and all of those things turn out, not to be exactly right in the case of syria. i think it's why, despite discussion of redline, the president is not willing to sign the green light because we can't, we don't know if we can

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have a tipping point. you may end up arming heroes of the revolution who the nastiest. >> i want to switch a little bit to benghazi here in this political fight. the most logical, what is the most likely explanation of everything we have here. what is the most likely explanation of what happened in this debate between cia, white house and the state department? >> you know, chuck, i think you alluded at the top the show what the most likely explain is, which is a fight between the cia and state department. >> it happens every day. >> it does happen every day. >> particularly because there is so much coordination that is never admitted to between diplomatic outposts and the cia. >> even the phrase diplomatic outpost. the state department didn't want to call it consulate. the biggest presence was in a completely cia operation and they were relying on the cia for

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security. so, of course, as they work out the talking points, the question becomes, who is to blame for the absence of the security and the cia is saying, not us, we're not responsible for consulates and the state department is saying it has to be. >> steve, do you believe ultimately the white house made this decision we're then going to limit information even more so? >> i think all white houses do that. >> knee jerk -- >> well, this white house, but i would say the bush/cheney white house engaged in the same kind of information withholding on a variety of issues. people may not remember that now and it's one of the problems emdemic of executive branches who become obsessed with not only secrecy, but not wanting information out and worrying about the risk. they are trying to coordinate and synthesize a story. put them out. >> say we don't know yet. >> some interesting revelations

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that were very compelling. in my view, doesn't change, in my mind, what would have been likely on the ground. and you basically had a fight over tactics between hicks and others, but it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have that out. it wouldn't have been a bad thing to have the memo out in the early versions of the memo. when you have to ask from these commissions, i feel tom pirgeripir pickering is a great leader and when you have accountability review boards, the boards should not be trying to create a single view of history and put it all out. >> david, i don't understand his answer on why secretary clinton wasn't intervienterviewed. >> we're reporters. the biggest mistake you make as a reporter all the time is to assume that you know the answer you're going to get from somebody when you're going to go interview. >> you have to interview them. >> the gates nrlt view he began with, two answers in there i did not anticipate and i covered the man fairly closely. i think you've got to go out and interview every single player

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and to say, no, we knew the answer to that is not a sufficient response. >> and at some point you would think secretary clinton should want to figure out a way to sort of put a period in this chapter. >> all the players in the team should have been interviewed. tom said that discussions with her, but they should have been all in the record. >> thanks very much. up next, we have some electoral surprises to share. you thought mark sanford's comeback was remarkable. wait until you hear what happened this weekend in another country. and why republican gabriel gomez says the massachusetts senate race is closer than you think. first, today's trivia question. how many states are represented by only one party a in the house of representatives? the first person to tweet the correct answer to @chucktodd and @dailyrundown. we'll be right back. we went out and asked people a simple question:

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how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ ♪

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on our radar election results out of pakistan shows sharif has made an amazing comeback. shareef was top aled, jailed and then exiled. the election appears to have paved the way for the first transition from one elected government to another in a country that is usually prone to military takeovers. nbc news has obtained cell phone footage from the day amanda berry, gina dejesus and michelle knight escaped. you can see police entering the house for the very first time on this footage. the three women released statements thanking their community and requested privacy as they continue to recover. meanwhile, castro's brothers who were initially arrested and later released told cnn their brother is a "a monster" and he should "rot in jail."

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they had no idea he was holding the three girls in his home. republican gabriel gomez trails ed marquee in special election, by how much? just tloo poinhree points. the poll which was conducted by their firm, republican pollster on message was done a week ago and it shows markey at 46 and gomez at 43. the poll comes, though, at the end. the end of what was a very rough week for the gomez campaign. the underdog had to defend himself against tax deductions he took on his home that the irs labeled as one of the dirty dozen tax scams. now to detroit where the city is broke and faces a tough future, according to a new report by the city's state-appointed emergency manager. according to the report, detroit has exceeded spending budget by about $100 million every year since 2008. said he had to borrow $80

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million last march to avoid running out of money completely. he and his staff are still reviewing the report. presenting his financial plans later today. up next, the policy prescription. a deep dive into these republican riffs over the economy and the environment. the problem is just selling the message is also agreeing on one. you're watching "daily rundown" on msnbc. [squeals] ♪ [ewh!] [baby crying] the great thing about a subaru is you don't have to put up with that new car smell for long. introducing the versatile, all-new subaru forester. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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your business is more reliable, secure, and agile. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. well, there's no shortage of ideas when it comes to fixing the republican party, whether about how to pick a candidate, change to demographics. looking at specifically the issue of the economy and the environment. on the economy, conservatives are chomping at the bit to use the upcoming debt ceiling debate as a weapon to force new spending cuts and tax reform. the problem is, middle class americans may not see how the republican agenda helps them. in february, majority leader

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eric cantor suggested they have to explain why their plan is everyone, not just protecting the rich. >> for the next two years our house majority will pursue an agenda that is based on a shared vision of creating the conditions of health, prosperity for more americans and their families. >> haven't reflected the efforts to sell their policies as a benefit for the middle class, but others claim it could be done. this is how president reagan introduced his tax legislation before he signed it in 1986. >> the bill i'm signing today is not only a historic overhaul of his tax code and sweeping victory for fairness, but also the best antipoverty bill, the best pro-family measure and the best job creation program ever to come out of the congress of the united states. >> another issue fueling party

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divisions is climate change downplayed or discussed by republican leaders. a an increasing number of voters are paying attention. gallup poll shows 58% of people are worried about global warming and 57% say it's manmade. what's more, a significant shift in how republicans view the issue and when asked if they are concerned about global warming, republicans saw the biggest two-year jump of any party. while some republicans like alaska senator encourage their colleagues to seek climate change solutions, other leaders have gone out of their way to criticize the president and his environmental agenda. >> when we point out that no matter how many job killing laws we pass, our government can't control the weather. he accuses us of wanting dirty water and dirty air. >> joining me now two reporters who have been intensely examining the gop's policy soul search. their articles share the cover of the new issue of "national journal" this week.

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and nancy cooke is the economic and fiscal policy correspondent. welcome to you both. >> thanks. >> it seems as if this is basically about the same thing. which is how do the republican party look like they're in touch with the average american? you focus, nancy, on the middle class stuff. >> yeah. so, really, there's this debate right now. a bunch of intellectual policy and strategists that are really focused on the republicans winning the white house in 2016. the house republicans and those in power, look, if we want to win the white house, we need to talk about things that middle class americans care about. education, you know, lower taxes, things like that. but house republicans are still really focused at this point on tax reform and budget cuts. things like that that it's harder to translate and talk about to the average american. >> they're not winning the tax issue. if you look, always split down the middle. it seems that some people arguing that they're too, almost view taxes as an economic crutch. >> i think that's part of it.

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they're going to with this upcoming debt ceiling fight that we're going to fight in october and november, to talk about tax reform now as an economic policy and as a job creator. they've changed some of their messaging on that. but the question is, can you explain changing the very complex tax code in a way that let's say a nurse or a single mother in chicago or a family a in nevada actually understands. >> coral, on the issue of climate change, what's interesting thing here. republican leaders three years ago were on one side of this story and republicans rank and file were less inclined to believe it. now, everything is reversed. >> we really see this fasflating split in the party right now. we're seeing republican leaders. i think it's even a split between the leaders because you see leaders like marco rubio feeling very comfortable, essentially mocking or denying the science of climate change. on the other side, you see leaders like jeb bush who, at

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cpac this year, you know, not being seen as a party of antiscience. so, you're seeing them emerging among the leaders. >> a fiscal compoenent to this. you'll see the republican party if they unite around one way. it doesn't take a rocket s scientist to figure out we're getting more hurricanes later in the alphabet than ever before. >> i think this is a place where you're going to start to see a shift in the debate. climate change becomes a budget issue and becomes a spend issue. i think that's what we'll see more and more changes in shifts in the republican party. sandy was a $60 billion event. it costs the federal government that much money. the more, and the federal government is the nation's flood insurance and the nation's drought insurer. the more the budget starts to hurt as a result of paying out flood insurance, drought insurance, damages for increa d

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increased, you know, these increased storm and extreme weather experiences, the more the republican party is going to have to look at this as a spending issue. >> nancy, goes back, boat of these iss these issues go back to what do people at the kitchen table hear? they're hearing it must be for a bunch of rich people showing up at fund-raisers and they complain the most about their taxes. >> there is a sense from the 2012 presidential campaign where president obama successfully painted mitt romney as this out of touch who wanted to protect tax breaks. >> romney helped that along with his 47% remark. >> he absolutely did. but by the house republicans continuing to sort of harp on spending cuts and taxes and things like that, they're sort of continuing that message from the campaign and what some party members are saying, look, we need to scratch the scenario. we need to move away from that. >> i talked to some democrats who are arguing that they have to dump the phrase climate

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change, not just global warming has been dumped but climate change has been politicized too much. do other republicans agree with that? >> a little bit of a debate on what we call climate change or call it global warming? a broader debate on sort of extreme weather adapitation now. now there's -- >> all because somebody has politicized it. >> but you talk about kitchen table issues. this is something where people say something is happening with the weather. >> it's snowing in may, i mean, hello. weird things are happening. >> weird things are happening and it's costing money. we have to prepare for it and i think there's a conversation going on about whatever you call it, we need to prepare for it because it's costing money. >> thank you, both. cover story of "national journal." long read, it's worth it. president obama meets the press in 90 minutes and t.

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gimme one, gimme one, gimme one! the power of the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. some live pictures here, special relationship watch. we're expecting british prime minister david cameron to arrive any minute now. just four months into his second term, president obama is having one of those rough weeks keeping the focus on his legislative agenda is hard for him. he find himself in the middle of two brewing controversies. friday's revelation that the irs targeted political groups. the question, can obama avoid curse of second term? let's bring in our monday gaggle, former communication aide to president george w. bush, democratic consultant and former executive director for the and welcome all. dan, it was a pretty bold headline by "washington post" on

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sunday. are we jumping that quickly. the second term, the president's second term as far as the legislative agenda. is it under that much pressure right now because of these two controversies? >> i think it's a legitimate question to raise and the story was very careful in looking at this thing historically. i mean, he had a very bad week last week which is an understatement. the no drama obamawhite house -- >> was all drama. >> all drama and you know the no drama obamawhite house is slow to react to things. sometimes that served him well. has not served him well in these instances and that's part of the question that we're going to see this week. >> slow reaction, if anything, take everything at face value the slow reaction is what fueled the skepticism. >> i don't think that we're seeing anything different here, chuck. the president is very, very deliberate in considering all factors before he responds. and i don't think this is any different this time, particularly given the set of circumstances both with benghazi and the irs scandal. a lot of things we still don't know, particularly as it relates to the irs. i don't think we can expect him

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to speak on anything until he gets more fact. >> i look at these two issues and seems like the irs, easy one for the republicans to unite behind. >> absolutely. you'll see more of it in 2014. you've been talking about that. really energize the republican place and they already distrust the irs and you have a perfect storm with benghazi and irs mixed in this. >> i was surprised by what i thought was a very meek response on friday when there was information already known that the president himself, they had an opportunity, but even jay carney's statement seemed more muted. this is outrageous. >> it's a no brainer in how you should react to it publicly. and it's also a no brainer that the president should have been out earlier than he has been. i mean, we'll hear from him this morning, obviously, at the press conference with prime minister cameron, but no reason he should not have had something to say. they knew enough to be able to say it was outrageous and to

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have had a more senior person than jay carney answering it. >> angela, i have to say, where is the democratic outreach on this? i haven't seen it. republicans jumping up and down on this and i haven't seen -- >> part of the reason is this is not a new problem, right? i think we can look no further than the 2004 election and george bush had the naacp audited. this is not a new phenomenon. >> all the more reason to jump on this. >> no, not necessarily. i think when you have a situation where this is what we're used to and more broadly it's a type of profiling. this is something that we see not just in the federal government, but in state and municipal governments all over the country. i don't think that folks are like, oh, this is something new. yes, it's outrageous, but we've seen it. it's old news, i think, to people who may be more liberal leaning. >> it is one of those things and it does seem as if you're mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham and incumbent republican worried about the tea party challenging

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you, this is a gift. >> yeah. >> i'm looking out for your back. don't challenge me. >> to find common ground and to dan's point, it's unfortunate that president obama will be essentially forced to react to this at today's press conference. >> they could have done this on their own schedule on friday. that is what seemed, if anything, a missed opportunity. we'll talk more about this, more on benghazi on the other side. how many states are represented by only one party in the house? the answer is 18. 7 of them have at-large representatives where one congressman who serves the whole state. the remaining 11 states, 4 are republican delegations. 7 are all democratic. congratulations to today's winner returning champion bradley america. if america is your last name, you better know the answer to that. political trivia question for us, e-mail us. we'll be right back. hoo-hoo.

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looking at live pictures here, the british prime minister, david cameron, pulling up to the west wing lobby, where they will be doing a bilateral back and forth with the president and of course we'll have a press conference. always this is always you know something is distracting you when a joint press conference a week ago between cameron and the president would is been all about syria. today all the questions will be about everything else. >> that's right. this will be a totally focused on the president and his current troubles, not on the kinds of things you would normally expect. this is the first time he's been out since these occurred. there were a lot of questions raised both on benghazi and obviously on irs, as we just talked about. he's going to be asked to

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reresponsibilitr respo respond. >> angela, how does the president avoid this. the republicans obviously are feeling empowered, they have subpoena power. the news would indicate they're more than justified on having a whole bunch of hearings on the irs. how does the president avoid this taking over his agenda? >> the president has to stay focused on what his intent is. he want to deal with immigration reform, he wants to address gun control. the vice president stated he wanted to ensure it went forward. i think a lot of the country agree with that. unfortunately, there are folks who have legitimate questions about what happened with the irs. i think the one thing that works in his favor is that neither one of the people who would have been responsible, whether it's schulman who didn't know, there's evidence to support that.

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he's under bush, and that may happen a little bit. and then the woman over the cincinnati office is not a political appointee of the democrat. >> you saw your boss -- when it goes, it goes fast. when washington turns on your second-term agenda. >> the second term curse is real for us with the billy clubs. we know what this is like. the way he avoids it is by actually addressing it early and strongly and then pivot, which he likes to do. >> shameless plug time. >> my mom, maura, watching at lake central high school with some friends. >> this is a special shutout to all the capitol hill staffers who will be very busy with irs and benghazi. >> it's going to be a long week. >> a plug for rick atkinson, who just published volume three of

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his war trilogy. great book. >> and mine is for savannah guthrie and mike feldman. thank goodness, anyway, a marriage we all are excited about. stay with us. nbc will have live coverage of the president conference with the president. chris jansing. bye-bye. plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely, but for many, it gets skin clearer fast, within 2 months, and keeps it clearer through 6 months. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events, including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders,

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we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. good morning. we are coming up on the top of the hours. right now the president is meeting with british prime minister david cameron. they'll hold a joint press conference in about an hour. the big question dogging the president this morning is still about benghazi. republicans calling for more hearings, subpoenas, depositions. they say they need to get to the bottom of what happened eight months ago. senator mccain wants a joint select committee to investigate

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calling what happened a coverup and congressman darrell issa wants testimony from the two men in charge of an independent review of what happened, former ambassador too many as pickering and admiral mike mullen. >> ultimately if that got it right, then we can put this to a rest. we believe it was insufficient. we believe it is likely they did not interview all the people. we have a witness who says i want to be interviewed and i wasn't. >> this morning ambassador pickering said he will testify. >> i am willing, as i have said continually, to go to that committee. i had regrets about going there at first when it looked like this was an entire political circus. i have now made it clear that i am prepared as all the other witnesses have to appear before that committee. >> i want to bring in